Shariatmadari and Baqir al-sadr.. the killing is one.

Date: 2020-04-21

Author: Rasheed Al-Khayoun

This month (April) marks the death of two Shite scholars, one of them Muhammad Kazem Shariatmadari (1985) who was imprisoned in his home and prevented from medical treatment for cancer by order of the Iranian regime and the Supreme Leader. He was diagnosed with cancer whilst in prison and was kept incarcerated despite being a great scholar. Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr was executed in Iraq in 1980, due to his Islamic political activity and his connection to the new Iranian regime which supported an Islamic revolution in Iraq. Islamic political parties in Iraq and Iran celebrate Sadr’s life during the anniversary of his execution, whilst they do not acknowledge the death of Shariatmadari, even though both scholars were imprisoned and persecuted. The discussion talks about this dualism among Islamic political parties, and the similarities in terms of dictatorship, between the former Iraqi Ba’athist regime and the present Iranian regime.